The End
by Pippen Malfoy
Summary: Mmkay. This is just one of my English class projects; write a less confusing last chapter to The Giver. oO Mine's a very short sequel. RR, flames are alright too...basically Jonas dies, Gabe finds a new city to live in. What can I say? I suck at summari


This is my first attempt at anything close to a fanfiction. o_O And it's not even really a fanfiction, it's actually my project on The Giver for my English class. XD I wrote a new ending chapter to the book. This is more like....eh...a very short sequel.  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing from this story, except for Anna and Xander, and the town of Zeppelin. X_x :: hails Lois Lowry :: And also, the name Zeppelin comes from-yep, you guessed it-Led Zeppelin. Just thought I'd add that, so I don't get sued for anything....  
  
Chapter 23 ((A/N: Had to start the project like this, sorry o_O))  
  
...He thought he saw light, and he thought he heard music too, but it was only an echo.  
  
Chapter 24  
  
Was that an echo? Jonas thought, looking confusedly about at the forest. It felt oddly quiet after the echo faded off, much thanks to the lack of crickets, birds, animals, anything living besides the trees. Much different than the forest the Giver gave me memories of, he thought sadly, eyes still darting about the silent woods.  
  
"Jo! Jo!" chirruped Gabe happily, his own way of speaking Jonas's name as Jonas cautiously started to walk the bike across the leafy grounds, twigs cracking and dry leaves and plants crumbling under the black rubber tires.  
  
Jonas stopped the bike to rest for just a moment, leaving Gabe in the seat as he leaned gently up against the sturdy metal frame of the bike. Suddenly, a twig cracked, and Jonas froze, looking about slowly as Gabe babbled cheerfully. He barely heard the sound of another twig snapping.  
  
"Hush, Gabe," Jonas whispered, gently putting his hand over the small boy's mouth. Gabe stopped his meaningless chatter, looking where Jonas was looking. There, in the trees, standing ever so silently, was a man. Normally, Jonas wouldn't have been afraid of another human- well, not afraid, Jonas thought, surprised he was going back to his precision of language habits in a situation like this. More like very, very apprehensive.  
  
Jonas stood silently, and Gabe didn't seem to notice what was happening. To Jonas's great surprise, the man was nothing like that of what he thought normal; he was tall and dark-skinned, with a bald head and very pale, misty looking gray eyes. But what really alarmed Jonas was the weapon- the Giver had told him it was called a bow and arrow- that the man was holding.  
  
As Jonas watched rather fearfully, and Gabe just went about his own business, playing with his toes and not really caring what was happening, another human that looked quite different than the first one walked up behind the first. This one was female, with choppily cut, plum-purple hair that fell just to the base of her neck, very pale skin, but the same misty gray eyes as the man. Reminds me of Fiona, thought Jonas, watching her.  
  
"Boo! Where were you, Xander?" she shouted playfully behind the first man, and Jonas remembered this word from a memory the Giver had transmitted: Halloween, he had called it. Even though in the memory, the person that had been shouted at laughed, this man was completely unaware, jumping in fright and accidentally firing an arrow.  
  
Jonas watched as the arrow lowered in midair, hitting him squarely in the chest. He fell to his knees, completely surprised, gasping for breath. The woman, her eyes wide, ran out of the trees to his side. "Are you alright?" she said, an odd accent he had never heard before protruding in her voice.  
  
The purple hair of the woman was the last thing Jonas saw before slipping out of consciousness.  
  
"Jo? Jo?" asked Gabe uncertainly in a tiny voice, his pale blue eyes wide as he looked at the now motionless Jonas that lay on the ground.  
  
"XANDER!" the woman exploded, face even paler than before as she looked at Jonas and then Gabe. "What in the name of the Goddess did you do?! You just killed a poor innocent boy!"  
  
The dark-skinned man, evidently Xander, stepped forward to take a look at Jonas.  
  
"Well, Anna, if you hadn't jumped up behind me than I wouldn't have fired the arrow!"  
  
"Why'd you have the arrow ready to fire in the bow anyway?! It's just a few CHILDREN!"  
  
"How was I supposed to know whether they were friendly or not?"  
  
The purple-haired woman, Anna, chose to ignore it and stepped toward the bike, which was teetering on the un-level ground under the kickstand. She unstrapped Gabe, taking him out of the child seat.  
  
"Xander, that boy you killed was probably this baby's older BROTHER!" she said, as Gabriel craned his neck to look at Jonas, who Xander was now kneeling next to, mumbling what sounded like a prayer. He didn't reply.  
  
"Jo?" Gabe almost wailed as Xander lifted Jonas's limp body from the ground.  
  
Anna tried to soothe him, gently stroking back his blonde curls. "It's okay, it's okay," she said comfortingly. "Now, dear, what's your name?"  
  
"Gay! Gay!" Gabriel cooed, a smile coming over his tiny features as he told Anna his name. He pointed toward Jonas, who Xander was now starting to walk out of the forest with. "Jo!"  
  
"Xander!" she yelled, starting to jog after him, Gabe now sitting on her shoulders, pushing the bicycle along. "Xander, you get back here and wait for me and the baby!"  
  
:: that evening ::  
  
That night, Anna, Xander, and the rest of the citizens of their small town, Zeppelin, were crowded solemnly in the town square around a large bonfire. Xander was standing up in front of the fire.  
  
"Today," he said in a deep, sad-sounding voice, "or rather, tonight, we are gathered to celebrate the life of one we hardly knew." Gabe started to say Jonas's name, but was hushed by Anna, who was holding him on her lap.  
  
"Earlier this afternoon, in the forest, I am afraid to say that we lost not only what seemed to me a brave young man, but the brother of this small child, who's name is apparently Gay...or Gabe...er...something to that effect." He gestured toward Gabe, who looked around at all the people, so much different than he had ever seen before. Some had dark skin, like Xander, others had light skin, such as Anna, some in between. They had all different colors of hair; ranging from the whites and grays of the elderly, to the wild purple hair of Anna.  
  
The whole town of Zeppelin hung their heads at that moment, a few scooting to pat Gabe on the head and murmured a blessing of from their religion, Wicca- or whatever Gabe perceived the word to be, and much to Anna's surprise, Gabe seemed to know what was going on as he started to cry, nestling his head into Anna's shoulder.  
  
"Let us all join in a prayer for this lost soul," said Xander, bowing his head along with the rest of the townsfolk. The people began to murmur what sounded like a chant under their breath.  
  
"So mote it be." They finished their prayer with these puzzling words, and Xander waved his hand over the fire, and it instantly went out.  
  
The citizens shuffled solemnly off to their small homes, some still saying blessings in Gabe's direction.  
  
:: seven years later ::  
  
"Come on Anna, play tag with me!" persisted a small, skinny boy looking to be around 7, with light blue eyes and still just as white-blonde hair as when he had been a child, falling just to his shoulders in light wispy layers. Indeed, this boy was Gabe- seven years after Jonas's accidental death.  
  
A grinning woman, no doubt the same Anna that had taken him into the town of Zeppelin so many years ago, replied, "Oh Gabe-"they had found out his real name when he was four and able to remember what he couldn't say when he was a toddler "-I'm tired, we've been playing tag all morning! Why don't we try something different, like hide-and-seek?" she suggested, shrugging. Yes, this was definitely the same Anna- just maybe a bit older, but not exactly noticeably.  
  
"YAY! Hide-and-seek!" Gabe yelled happily, running off into the trees to hide. Anna started counting mentally, her hands in front of her eyes.  
  
"30!" said Anna, walking slowly into the woods. "Oooh, I'm coming to find you, Gabe!" she said mischievously, prowling about until she spotted Gabe, back facing her, stuffed into a bush.  
  
"Found you!" she called gleefully, and Gabe jumped out of the bush.  
  
"Mmkay, now it's time to go back, Xander called a town meeting today..." she said, taking his arm to lead him back to the town square.  
  
"Aww, do we have to go, Anna?" he pleaded, but she nodded.  
  
"Yes, it's important...We're going."  
  
:: at the town meeting ::  
  
That night, the residents, significantly less, for some reason, of Zeppelin gathered around the fire, much alike to the night seven years ago, where they all said a prayer in the late Jonas's name.  
  
Xander stood up, pacing around the circle of people that sat cross-legged around the fire.  
  
"These days have been hard," he started, giving notion toward the fact that suddenly, a very odd disease had struck their people, and their animals, leaving many dead; their crops had become stunted and stopped growing.  
  
"As you all well know, many of our friends and relatives have died, as well as our animals and our crops." He closed his eyes for a moment with what sounded almost like a resigned sigh, plowing on.  
  
"None of this has ever been here before. None of it has ever happened in Zeppelin." Here, he gave a halfhearted look at Gabe, who turned around to receive a puzzled look from Anna.  
  
"We have also never taken an outsider into our city." Here he shot a firm look at Anna, and Gabe's heart sunk. Even though seven was such a young, tender age, he knew what these words meant: Xander, the man he had grown up to know as his father, thought he was an outsider. He knew the meaning of the word thanks to several more mean-spirited Zeppelinians who had told him he never should have come. He was snapped back out of his thoughts by Xander's continuation of what he was saying.  
  
"It's hard on me as well as it will be on the rest of you, but I have no choice but to..." he paused to take a deep breath. "-to expel Gabe from the community."  
  
Gabe froze, looking up at the man he had thought of as 'father' all of his life. Anna was standing up, staring numbly at her husband.  
  
"Xander-why-"she started to say, before a sob escaped her throat and she bent down to hug Gabe, who's cheeks now had silent tears dripping from them.  
  
Xander waved his hands over the fire as he had done that night seven years ago, putting it out, and the townsfolk walked away, some turning to take a last look at Gabe, who was now sobbing into Anna's shoulder, Anna doing the same.  
  
:: later that night ::  
  
"Xander, what in the name of the Mother were you thinking?!" Anna burst out angrily, still in a tear-choked voice.  
  
"None of this, this disease and famine, none of this happened before we let that child in!" he hissed at her.  
  
"That child has a name, Xander!" she said furiously, brushing away the tears that had started to well up again.  
  
"He's leaving, Anna." Xander said firmly, brows furrowed, jaws clamped together. "I swear it to you, after he's gone Zeppelin will thrive again!"  
  
Anna stormed off to Gabe's room, still crying, leaving Xander to ponder his own decision alone.  
  
:: in Gabe's room ::  
  
"Anna, why?" sobbed Gabe. "What did I do? Does Xander not like me anymore? I didn't do anything to kill anyone, honest!"  
  
Anna embraced him once again, murmuring. "I know, I know you didn't do anything...Xander's best interests are keeping Zeppelin the safest, most perfect place on earth. Nothing's your fault."  
  
Gabe didn't answer.  
  
"I love you, Anna," he finally said quietly, knowing he probably wouldn't see her again after this last night.  
  
This only made Anna cry more, and finally, the two fell asleep right in the chair that Anna had been sitting in, Gabe on Anna's lap.  
  
:: the next day ::  
  
The whole town stood at the Zeppelin city limits, Gabe standing right next to the signs that read, "Zeppelin City Limits". All that was ahead of him was thick, green forest.  
  
"Well, go on, go," said Xander firmly, giving Gabe a bit of a push through the boundaries.  
  
Gabe nodded, holding back any of his emotions as he walked slowly past the signs, into the forest, until he couldn't be seen past the ferns and trees.  
  
Anna slowly turned to Xander, vision blurred with tears, but even so, with suprising accuracy, smacked him across the side of the face before running off into the forest also.  
  
"ANNA!" Xander yelled, seemingly devastated over the loss of his wife. He started to venture into the forest, but turned back after only a few seconds of only glancing about.  
  
"Er...um...well, we can find her later," he said, nodding as if procrastinating would solve the problem. It was silent for a moment before a few people started shouting.  
  
"You just lost your wife, and one of the sweetest children I've ever met, and you say, 'oh, we can find her later'? You're insane, Anna should smack you again to knock some sense into you!" one woman shouted.  
  
"And what about all that poppycock about Gabe causing the famine and the disease?!" yelled a man angrily. "He didn't do anything! He's a helpless seven-year-old boy, for the Goddess's sake!"  
  
"Please! Please, stop, citizens of Zeppelin!" Xander called, trying to restore calm, but as he started to run back to the house that he, Anna, and Gabe had once lived in, the shouting people followed him the whole way home.  
  
::in the woods ::  
  
Back in the forest, Gabe was now sitting, knees pulled to his chest and eyes closed, inside the same bush that he had hidden in while he played hide and seek with Anna.  
  
"What did I do? Why did Xander make me leave? I didn't do anything," he mumbled rather repetitively to himself, as if trying to assure himself that he really hadn't done anything wrong.  
  
Anna peeked quietly into the bush, grabbing his hand. "Gabe?" she said softly, and the boy's eyes shot open to look at her. "...Anna?" he said almost incredulously, slowly pulling himself out of the bush. "Anna, you know Xander's going to come looking for you-"  
  
She cut him off there. "Xander's just been literally given a smack back into reality," she said with a small roll of her eyes.  
  
He didn't reply for a few moments; he seemed to be struggling with whatever he wanted to say.  
  
"Anna? Do you-do you lo-love me?" He asked tentatively with a bit of a stutter, having no clue whatsoever that Jonas had asked that same question to their parents back at his first community, only to get a rather disturbing answer.  
  
Anna suddenly put her arms around Gabe. "Of course I love you. I've always loved you, from the second I picked you up out of the little child seat on Jonas's bike." she said, nodding.  
  
As Gabe and Anna hugged, Gabe suddenly remembered something that Jonas had said while they were in the forest, before they had met Anna and Xander. "I love you, Gabe." He recalled hearing, but had no idea what it had meant.  
  
He suddenly understood, that at that very moment, he was loved. 


End file.
